The 9th Circuit’s decision to delay the election until March so that voting machines could be updated (else have 40,000 people be disenfranchised) was met with vitriolic vigor by Republicans today.

Representative Darrell Issa, who funded the recall petition drive, called today’s decision a “judicial hijacking of the electoral process.” Can you believe that? Here’s a guy who invoked a little-known century-old throwback to recall the governor, an effort which started only a few months after he was legally elected, blatantly for the purpose of overthrowing the election results (we don’t like that the other guy won, so we want a do-over). By getting the signatures of a tiny minority of the citizens of the state, he’s costing the state tens of millions, sabotaging the very core of our election system, and making us into a worldwide laughingstock. And he’s saying the judiciary is “hijacking” the process? Because they want to allow voting machines to be updated so tens of thousands of votes won’t be trashed like they were in Florida?

The GOP is crying foul, that this is an attempt to overturn the “will of the people.” What hypocrites. Do I even need to explain about Florida? The “will of the people of California”? A tiny minority of people, mostly conservatives, signing a sheet people shove under their noses outside of WalMart, and this is the “will of the people”? It’s the will of the Republicans, not the people. Benefit to Gray Davis or not, the core purpose of the appeal, to allow as many votes to count as possible, is valid. The GOP is only worried that after 5 months, people will vote based on their solid opinions and not on hype and publicity.

More than that, they’re worried because Arnold will not be able to say he’s “looking into” a solution for the budget crisis for that long. If the election is put off until March, Schwarzenegger will have no choice but to lay out a plan to fix the mess he blames Davis for–and the odds are he doesn’t have the slightest clue, and what he’ll present will be easily picked apart.

Gee, allowing more people to vote and forcing the candidates to tell the people what they intend to do when they are elected to office. What a travesty.